Is Dopamine the New Fuel for Social Unrest? Lessons from Nepal’s Gen Z Protests

In September 2025, a seemingly bureaucratic decision in Nepal triggered one of the deadliest protest waves in Asia’s recent history. The government, citing the need for “regulation,” abruptly banned 26 major social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube. What started as peaceful gatherings in Kathmandu swiftly devolved into violent confrontations, with protesters hurling stones and Molotov cocktails at riot police, who responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition. By the time the ban was lifted, the unrest claimed at least 19 lives, left hundreds injured, and saw acts of arson targeting government buildings and vehicles, culminating in the dramatic resignation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli within days and the dissolution of his cabinet.

Protests against governments are part of the social evolution and we have seen such movements time to time in different parts of the world. Nepal, since the monarchy’s abolition in 2008, has seen 14 prime ministers which reflects the palpable state of the democratic upheaval it’s going through. Faltering economy plagued by high public debt, inflation, and over-reliance on remittances from migrant workers, which constitute about a quarter of GDP but fail to alleviate widespread poverty, simmered dissent among the youths. Unemployment hovers at around 21%, driving hundreds of thousands to emigrate annually in search of opportunities, while institutionalized corruption, evident in high-profile scandals involving graft and nepotism, has eroded public trust. The ostentatious displays of wealth by the elite’s “nepo-kids” on social media further exacerbated feelings of inequality, highlighting a system rigged against the average young Nepali made this small nation a tinder box waiting for the spark which the social media ban did.

But this protest, the eruption of the Gen Z fury, is marked by its raw aggression and unyielding momentum, which not only toppled a government but also laid bare the ravaging potential of young minds evolving in the age of ever connected social media, algorithm orchestrated screen addiction and the AI. Unlike conventional protest movements, which typically rely on charismatic leaders, political parties, trade unions, or social groups to buildup the momentum from the grass-root, this uprising was organised in real time through scattered but emotionally connected online social networks. It was led not by seasoned activists but by thousands of young people, mostly from Generation Z, who had never met each other in person but shared common digital habitats. Their mobilization was rapid, leaderless and emotionally charged. Within hours of the ban, their cyber communion mutated into physical congregation on the street with fervent rage and open defiance.

The speed with which the protest engulfed entire Nepal, surprised the whole world. What made this protest remarkable was not just the ferocious vehemence of the Gen Z but the parametric architecture of the social media which amplified the rebel rush cascade by framing the government’s ban as a psychic assault on their identity, belonging, and existential struggles, for which digital spaces offered a vital refuge. Therefore, it’s crucial to get to the roots of the Gen Z’s emotional landscape as digital natives and how their seamless fusion of the real and idealized virtual selves, in constant interaction with the social media, is shaping their persona and emotional resilience in today’s world.

In an attempt to decode the genesis of Nepal protests, this exploration will unfold as a series of in-depth analyses with each post dedicated to unique psychological and socio-cultural dimensions of the contributing factors. The initial coverage will focus on the psychological profiling of Generation Z, probing how social media addiction and its neuropsychological consequences have shaped their collective temperament and emotional framework which might have primed them for the infernal outburst culminating in the Nepal protests.

This discussion will further progress into how the digital ecosystem is reshaping Gen Z’s self-concept, perceived power distance and relationship with authority, giving rise to a generation which is hyper connected but ontologically unmoored. The later segments will turn toward the eruption itself, exploring the foundational undercurrents translated into the intensity, spontaneity and vehemence of the Nepal uprising, and what these sequence of events reveal about the future of digitally mediated dissent. Together, this series aims not only to map the anatomy of a single protest but to illuminate the broader psychological and technological fault lines that are quietly redrawing the political landscape of the 21st century.